


Stay Alive

by wewillalwaysenduphere



Series: The Hamilton Challenge: The Other 51 [2]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, F/F, F/M, M/M, Post WW3, There will be violence, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 15:56:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12135918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wewillalwaysenduphere/pseuds/wewillalwaysenduphere
Summary: The third world war is over, and Alexander manages to flee to Europe after America is left an uninhabitable wasteland. Former general George Washington is working on creating a camp for the refugees, and they start building a new life.One evening, Alexander saves a half-starved man from certain death, without any clue who the soft-spoken, quiet, seemingly harmless Aaron Burr used to be.





	Stay Alive

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be short and spicy, nothing more than a love story, but I thought about it and it turned into something more.  
> Also Stay Alive is definitely only a work title for now, but it fits.  
> I hope you enjoy it :)

 

_I wanted peace_  
_I did not want the glory_  
_I walked in Hell_  
_And now I tell my story_

  
**In the Beginning, J. Miles**

 

 

Alex had stopped tracking the date years ago, Washington had told them it didn’t matter, dates, time, they had the seasons and the sun to keep track, and they had no batteries left.

In his diary, Alex still marks the days, but his diary is for him only, he keeps it tucked away in the small wooden shack he’d built for himself, himself and Eliza back when she was still alive.

He doesn’t like to remember the past, the war, the nuclear bombs that left America an uninhabitable wasteland. They fled to Europe, like so many did, but unlike most of them, they survived.

Washington is the leader of their camp, a former general who’d left the war after realizing there was no government to give orders anymore. He’d brought along a few soldiers, and Alex, Eliza and her sisters had found them while searching for a place to stay. They are living in what had once been the south of France, but countries don’t exist anymore, passports eaten by flames and nations blown into pieces.

It’s a beautiful august evening with the sun still high in the sky, and Alex finishes scribbling his diary entry, always careful nowadays, measuring his words like he never had to before. But paper and pens are getting rare, a luxury they don’t have anymore.

He sets his diary aside, decides to go and have dinner with the rest of the camp. It really isn’t more than that, a bunch of shacks made of wood, some larger ones for storing crops and fruits they harvested, for farming equipment they had made themselves or were lucky enough to find. Lafayette and Hercules wave at him when he walks by. They are sharing a cottage, had been living in France before the war.

Angelica, Eliza’s older sister had married a man called John Church – not formally married, but in a small ceremony they’d held with George saying the words. It had been beautiful, and Alex remembers Eliza blinking away tears. Peggy lives with another woman, Amelie, and Alex can see them doing laundry down by the river, laughing, Amelie splashing water at Peggy and Peggy simply pressing a kiss to her cheek.

Alex smiles to himself, makes his way over to the larger building they used for assemblies and meals, asks Ben and John if they can use some help cooking.

“We don’t want to poison anyone,” John laughs, and Alexander smiles back and simply sits down at a table with Martha Washington and Dolly Madison, allows himself this day, because sometimes they have days like this, lucky days, when the war seems long over and the hard years directly after nothing more but a bad memory. They are not on the verge of starving anymore, they have a working community, a doctor, fields they can harvest. No nuclear bombs landed in Europe, so they are not in danger of dying from cancer either – or at least, in less danger than they would be in America or Asia.

Alex lets himself have it, and once they ring the bell hanging in front of the community building, people start assembling, the food simple but plentiful, and the voices ringing out are not weighed down by death or fear or stress.

After, Alex gets up early, says his goodbyes, says he needs some time alone. They understand, because everyone remembers his wife dying in childbirth, after everyone had been so excited to see the little one, after months of hoping and waiting. His son hadn’t made it either.

So Alex goes down to the river, and he watches the water flow, lets the thoughts quiet down in his mind, the way they never did before all this. But now there is no treasury to run anymore, and if anyone here still remembers who he was before the war – even during – they never mentioned it, and Alex is happy about that.

This is his life now.

He stays until it’s almost too dark to see, but when he gets up, he hears something. Steps coming towards him, but not from the camp, from further down the river. He sees the silhouette of a man, using a sturdy branch as a walking aid. He must have seen Alex too, and he stops, raises his other hand to show it’s empty, he’s not holding a gun. Not a threat, Alex thinks, when the man comes closer, and Alex can see his face, see how bony the hand clutching the branch is, and when he gets up, the other man stops, looks at him.

His eyes are dead, Alex realizes, shudders a little. The man isn’t much older than himself, but he looks as if he were.

“Help me,” he whispers, and collapses, making it almost impossible for Alex to catch him before he hits the floor. Alex picks him up, and although he isn’t exactly tall and broad himself, this man is even smaller than him, and he is so easy to carry, feels like a bundle of bones in Alexander’s grip.

He knows that he shouldn’t, no strangers are allowed into the camp, but he’s not a threat, and Alex knows he can’t leave him out here to die. When he comes back to the building they all eat in, he hears the voices go quiet, and he searches for Adrienne, their doctor, with his eyes.

“Please,” he says, and she sighs, looks at Washington who gets up, walks over to Alex and looks at the man in his arms.

Washington is a good leader, and that’s because he’s able to make the hard calls no one else here wants to make. But he’s far from cruel, and when he sees the half-starved features of the man, he nods at Adrienne.

Adrienne is by Alexander’s side almost immediately, checking the man’s pulse, looking satisfied afterwards.

“Come.”

Alex follows her into the small hut they all created as some kind of practice and hospital, he lays the man down there and they undress him together, check his body for injuries, and while there’s no open wounds, there are scars all over his body, his back looks like he’s been whipped multiple times, and Alex has a hard time looking at the obvious cruelty this man had to have faced to bear such vivid reminders of it. He’s also emaciated to a degree that makes Alex wonder if a human being can ever recover from that. When Adrienne lifts his head and pours water into his mouth, he wakes up enough to swallow. They let him sleep after that.

“We need to make him eat, but slowly. Not too much in the beginning, no matter how much he craves, okay? He’ll die if you give him too much.”

Alex looks at her, stunned.

“Why I? Aren’t you gonna-“

“Of course I’ll look after him, but given his condition right now someone should be with him at all times. If I could, I’d hook him up to an IV and monitor his heart rate, but as it is – someone has to be with him at all times. I’ll bring you some apples, if he wakes up, make him drink and give him one after the other, okay? I’ll take the next shift.”

Alex nods.

“Yes, thank you.”

She sighs. “It’s my job, after all. How did you even find him?”

He tells her the story of how he found the man down by the river, and she accepts it. They all treat him more generously ever since he lost Eliza and his son.

“Good night,” Adrienne says before she slips out of the room, leaving Alex alone with the stranger laying on the makeshift bed, the mattress old but no one complains about things like that anymore.

They had clothed him in a simple plain shirt and sweatpants after deciding his old clothes were too torn to keep. Alex looked at his face again, cheek bones and chin so pronounced he must have been hungering for weeks.

It had been a good day, and now he was going to spend his night here, hoping the man didn’t die on him.

It’s a couple hours later, Alex almost falling asleep on the chair he had moved close to the bed, when the man in the bed suddenly sits up, eyes wide open and panicked, trying to get rid of the blanket Alex had spread over him.

“Hey, it’s alright, you’re safe,” he reassures him, reaching out for his arm, but as soon as Alex’s fingers touch the bony wrist, the man flinches almost violently, yanks his arm away as if Alex is burning him.

“Who are you?” He sounds panicked, eyes flickering towards the door.

Alex takes a deep breath.

“I’m Alexander Hamilton. What’s your name?”

The stranger just stares at him. Alexander tries a smile.

“I found you down by the river, remember? I’m part of a small camp, our leader said it’s okay if you stay for a while. Do you want water or food?”

It’s obvious he still doesn’t trust Alexander, but the way he eyes the water bottle and the apples behind Alexander makes it clear he wants them.

“Here,” Alex hands him the bottle first, and he almost drowns it in one go. Alex hands him an apple after, and the man hungrily eats it, even the core.

“Our doctor said I can’t give you too much at once, but in a couple hours, you can have the next one, okay? Your stomach needs to get used to food again.”

The man eyes him again, hands back the bottle at last.

“Thank you. I’m Aaron.”

Alex nods, smiles at him. That’s something. He wonders if Aaron is going to tell him anything else, but apparently he’s not planning on doing so, because he lies back down, closes his eyes, and seems to fall asleep within a manner of seconds.

Okay, that makes sense. He’s exhausted and doesn’t really trust him yet, but at the same time he knows he doesn’t really have any other option than to allow Alex to take care of him.

Aaron wakes up two more times that night, and every time Alex hands him a bottle with fresh water and an apple. Aaron’s eyes are still wary and restless, but he thanks him every time and when Alex leaves in the morning and Adrienne comes in, he looks as if he’d rather have Alex stay. He flinches away from Adrienne’s touch just as violently as he did from Alexander’s. Alex feels sorry because they had touched him so much before, when he was unable to react.

Adrienne keeps Aaron in the sick shack for almost a week, until an older man falls ill. Alex still has a spare bed – after Eliza died no one had joined the camp until now – and he offers to take care of Aaron. Adrienne agrees, and Aaron simply nods when Alex proposes it.

The man doesn’t talk much, and even after a week, Alexander knows barely anything about him. Washington had a longer talk with Aaron, and although Alex doesn’t know what had been said, apparently Washington was fine with Aaron staying. Whether that would only be until he had recovered or for longer, no one else knows. Alex probably has better chances at finding out if he were to ask Washington than Aaron.

 When he arrives home that evening, Alex is surprised to see that there are candles lit in his shack, only to remember he isn’t living alone anymore. It makes a strange feeling spread in his chest. Aaron is sitting on his bed, reading one of Alex’s books. Books are rare in this new world, and Alex treasures those he has like they were made of gold. Not that gold has a lot of worth nowadays. (It’s also strange to see the two smalls beds aren’t next to each other anymore, the way they had been before Eliza died, because they hadn’t found a king size bed so they made do – but that’s not something he wants to think about now.)

Aaron realizes Alex must be looking at him, and immediately gets up to put the book back.

“I’m sorry,” he says, eyes on the floor as they so often are, trying to avoid Alexander’s gaze at all costs.

“No – you can read them. It’s fine. Just be careful, okay?”

Aaron looks back up for a moment, giving Alex one of his rare smiles before returning to the bed and sitting back down.

“I never thanked you for the extra meals.”

Alex doesn’t know what to say for a moment. John Laurens likes him, he knows that much, and it had been easy to make sure that John would hand some of the leftovers to him after each meal they prepared for the community.

“You’re welcome. I just wanted to help.”

Aaron makes an annoyed sound at that, and Alex is almost surprised he responded at all.

“What do you want in return?”

Aaron looks at him, and his eyes are clear and intelligent now that hunger isn’t clouding his mind anymore. His cheekbones are still more pronounced than what is healthy, but he doesn’t look like he’s going to starve to death anymore. He’s attractive, Alex realizes, and it’s entirely the wrong thought to have with this question hanging in the air.

“Nothing,” he says, and means it.  “But if you have a secret stash of books somewhere, it would be great if we could share.”

Aaron shakes his head.

“I have nothing to offer. Once I’m able to, I can of course work here for everything you’ve given me so far. Washington seemed okay with that.”

“If Washington says that, I won’t say anything against it.”

Alex tries to sound friendly, maybe he can get Aaron to open up a little more, but the man focuses on his book again, and Alex realizes his chance is over.

The next three weeks pass slowly and uneventfully. Alex still gets extra meals from Laurens, and Aaron still enjoys them, now that he can eat again. He’s gaining weight, looking less and less like the man Alex had encountered down at the river that first evening. Aaron stays mostly in the shack, reading, sleeping, and when Alex asks him if he’s bored or wants more company, he only shakes his head and negates politely.

When Aaron is there for a little over a month, Washington talks to him again, and this time, Alex is in the room. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t want to be kicked out, acts as if he’s cleaning the shelves on his side of the room.

“How are you doing?”

“Much better, thank you. If you want me to, I can start working tomorrow.”

Washington doesn’t say anything, and Alex turns around for just a moment so he can see him nod.

“Do you have any special abilities that could be useful for us in this situation?”

There is a moment of silence before Aaron’s answer.

“I was a soldier during the war. I understand if you don’t trust me just yet, but I realized you have men patrolling around the camp. I can do that.”

“Hmm,” Washington makes, sounding satisfied. “That’s going to be useful, I only have a few soldiers from my original troop and although everyone here knows how to defend themselves, it won’t hurt to have another professional around. I would prefer it if you could lend a hand with the harvest first, we need all hands on deck for that, but afterwards you can work with the rest of the soldiers.”

“Okay.”

Aaron doesn’t say anything else, and it seems as if Washington doesn’t know what to say to the man either, so he leaves the hut after a few more minutes and some small talk with Alex. Aaron is still sitting on his bed, reading another of Alex’s books, and Alex wonders what he’s going to do in a few weeks when he’s through with all of them.

“You were a soldier,” he states. Aaron only nods. “Is that why you have all those scars?”

Aaron looks at him now, there’s something dark, sharp and dangerous in his eyes and Alex almost takes a step back. He knows the question was a mistake, but Aaron doesn’t react angry or judgemental or in any way emotional apart from that look.

“Don’t ask about the scars,” he says, voice flat, before looking back down at his book, and Alex knows he won’t ask again.

Once Aaron starts working on the fields, he also starts interacting with the others, he starts eating in the larger building that is also their assembly hall, and most people don’t even recognize him from the pathetic bundle Alex had carried inside weeks ago. Alex sees how Theodosia’s gaze lingers on Aaron, sees how Lafayette raises one eyebrow and winks at him, and of course, he hasn’t forgotten that Aaron is attractive.

It’s impossible to forget, after all Aaron is living with him. He’s not emaciated anymore, not skinny anymore, still slender, but it’s obvious his frame is still filling out, and his eyes are so dark brown they almost look black at times, his cheek bones still high without looking like they’ll cut through the skin, and the definition of his jawline is not that of a starving man anymore but makes him look decisive, self-assured.

They get their dinner from Laurens, and as always, Alex smiles at him and talks for a moment, knowing Laurens has a crush on him, and since he’s taken advantage of that to get extra meals for Aaron, it’s the least he can do.

After they sit down with Hercules, Lafayette, Angelica and Peggy, Alex joins their conversation while Aaron stays silent, finishes his food and seems to blend in flawlessly, but without ever making his presence known. He politely answers any questions they might ask him, but he avoids giving away any information.

“Where did you come from?”

“A place that wasn’t as welcoming as this.”

“Do you have a family?”

“We all have, don’t we? The question is whether they’re still alive.”

“Are you planning on staying here?”

“I owe all of you, and I’ll pay my debt.”

Alex isn’t surprised, and the conversation flows easily between the rest of them, but at some point Hercules, who sits on Aaron’s other side, tries to give him a friendly slap on the back. Aaron doesn’t flinch like he did with Alex, this time his whole body moves quicker than Alex could have anticipated, and Hercules makes a pained sound when Aaron twists his arm around in what must be a torturous position. Aaron only holds it for a second, before letting go and starting to apologize.

“I’m sorry, I really am. I…just…please, don’t touch me.”

He looks at Hercules for a moment, before grabbing his plate and making his way over to the table where they collected the dirty dishes.

“Is he…always like that?”

Hercules is rubbing his shoulder, he doesn’t sound angry, he’s genuinely curious. Alex sighs.

“I don’t usually touch him…I did it once, when we first talked, and then he was too weak to do anything but flinch. But yeah, he doesn’t like it.”

“Then tell him I’m sorry too. I really just wanted him to open up a little.”

“Ha, I’ve been trying that for weeks. I talked to him about everything. The books he’s reading. My favourite TV shows before it all went to hell. Bands, how the camp works, everyone living here – and nothing. He nods and says “hmm” and goes back to reading.”

It’s Peggy who smiles at him from across the table and reaches for his hand, squeezes it for a moment before letting go.

“We’ve all been through something bad, Alex. He’s new here. Give him time.”

“Yeah, I know. I just…it’s nice to not live alone. But then again it’s still so quiet, so I’m still kind of alone…”

“I understand,” Angelica says, she’s sitting on his other side and wraps an arm around him now. Alex can see that her eyes are wet with unshed tears. It’s not like Peggy isn’t missing her big sisters, it’s just that Angelica is missing her much, much more. She and Alex had spent many nights together, staring at the stars and wishing they had alcohol to get drunk while trading stories, because that might have made it a little less painful. Peggy looks down at her hands, Hercules seems equally subdued, one hand still absently rubbing his shoulder.

Lafayette is the one to finally lighten the mood.

“But, Alex, you can’t tell me you haven’t realized how _attractive_ your new roommate is.”

He winks, and Alex has to laugh.

“Don’t you dare jump into bed with anyone so shortly after what happened,” Angelica threatens, but she’s grinning, and Alex knows all she wants is for him to be happy.

When Alex comes home after dinner, Aaron isn’t sitting on his bed reading like he expected. At first, Alex doesn’t worry. Aaron is a grown man after all, and they all have their own burden to carry. If Aaron needs to spend some time alone right now, Alex isn’t going to start searching him and rob him of the opportunity to do so. However, it starts getting dark quickly after, and Aaron still isn’t in sight.

Alex is getting nervous. Of course, Aaron knows the land a little by now, but if he needs to go home in the dark…and Alex doesn’t know how far away he is anyway…he makes a decision, reaches for his coat and makes his way outside, realizing he has no idea where to even begin searching. So he walks in a circle around the camp, growing more and more concerned, only to be flooded with relief when he arrives back at their hut and sees that the light is on inside.

He rushes in on Aaron searching for something in the first aid kit Alex has lying around, and for a moment, Alex wants to ask what he’s doing, until he sees the cuts on the insides of Aaron’s wrists. Words seem to desert him for a moment, and Aaron finally turns around, holding a bandage and some sterile gauze in his hands, avoiding Alexander’s eyes. He opens his mouth as if to say something, before realizing that the situation is probably damning enough, denial won’t make it better.

“I can take care of that for you,” Alex offers in his softest voice, but Aaron shakes his head.

“I can do it myself, but thank you.”

Alex wants to insist, tell him it’s not necessary that he does it himself, but he knows Aaron doesn’t want to be touched, and he sits down on his bed, cleaning the wound on his right arm with water from a bottle before pressing the gauze to it and wrapping the bandage around it in a quick and efficient way that proves he wasn’t lying when he claimed to be able to take care of this himself.

It doesn’t change the fact that Alex wants to crawl out of his own skin because he feels so guilty he couldn’t prevent this from happening. No matter how much he tells himself he’s not responsible for Aaron, he certainly feels as if he is. Aaron never talks, and Alex had simply assumed he wanted to be left alone, wanted his peace instead of being questioned about his past, something he could understand very well.

But the idea that the reason for Aaron’s behaviour was that he was struggling so much he had to take a knife to his skin…that is something Alex wished he’d realized sooner. He can’t change his behaviour of the past, but he can surely improve now. Sitting on his own bed, watching Aaron bandage his left wrist as well, he starts talking.

“You know, you don’t have to tell me what happened to you, it’s none of my business and I know it. I just want you to know that we all went through some shit, and you don’t have to feel alone. Everyone here had to do certain things to survive the war, we all lost someone, and we’ve all thought about dying at some point. I mean, I imagine death so much-“

“Alex,” Aaron interrupts him suddenly. “You’ve seen the cuts. You know if I had wanted to take my life I would have cut deeper.”

Alex nods, yes, he had seen them. Aaron hadn’t been bleeding a lot, and the bandages were more important to keep the wounds from being infected, but it’s good to hear Aaron say it.

“My wife died a few months ago,” he confesses, and Aaron looks at him with something like pity in his eyes. “We were going to have a child. Of course, we couldn’t know without ultrasound, but she was sure it was going to be a boy. We would have called him Phillip. She died during childbirth, and I lost them both at the same day, I mean – I want you to know I understand. I know what it feels like to hurt so bad you think you need to – but it also gets better with time, and I know that sounds really stupid-“

“Thank you.”

Aaron looks at him, and for the first time, he allows Alex to see the pain he must be feeling. Unlike all the other times, Aaron doesn’t look away, instead, he gets up, walks toward Alex, and holds out a tissue, Alex has no idea where he got it from, but it looks clean. He takes it, making sure not to touch Aaron, and dries the tears he hadn’t realized were falling.

“Don’t cry. Smile more.”

Alex huffs a laugh, but Aaron seems content with it, and moves on to put the first aid kit back where he got it from, before sitting down on his own bed, still looking at Alex, who hopes he might say more, but Aaron doesn’t. This time, Alex knows better than to wait too long.

“What are you reading at the moment?”

“Animal Farm,” Aaron answers, holding up the book so Alex can see the cover. It’s old, dog-eared, but Alex still smiles fondly when he sees it.

“It’s a good book.”

“It’s brutal in how true it is,” Aaron murmurs, but it’s more of a response than Alex had dared to hope for.

“Orwell has always been one of my favourites,” he starts. “I prefer 1984, but Animal Farm is brilliant as well.”

“Me too,” Aaron answers, another small smile accompanying his words. “I read 1984 first, and it’s hard to find anything that makes as much of an impact while reading.”

Alex was almost ecstatic, Aaron had never talked about one of the books with him before.

“Exactly! I read the scene with O’Brien torturing him on the subway, it was incredibly hot and stuffed with people and I still had chills all over.”

“I know what you mean. That scene, the whole two plus two makes five, it just…it makes you wonder how many two plus two is five things we were made believe. Especially during the war.”

Alex is almost in awe at how much Aaron is talking, but he tries not to let it show, or at least he hopes Aaron thinks his excitement is because of the book. At the same time, he realizes, he’s not like Winston. He had been the Secretary of the Treasury and he had made choices in everything that happened. He made decisions on where money would go, while soldiers like Aaron died out in the field.

For a moment, he doesn’t know what to say, and Aaron takes that as a signal to focus on his book again. Alex wants to curse himself for not keeping the conversation going, but really, they got further than ever before, and that’s a step in the right direction, isn’t it?

The next day Aaron is off working in the fields, while Alex makes notes on how much wheat they have, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, apples, cherries – everything they can possibly plant here and everything they have seeds for, plus everything that used to grow here anyway and could be used. Washington thought it was an easy job given what Alex had to handle before the war, and he’s right. Alex likes this though, it keeps him occupied. However, it’s august, and Washington wasn’t lying when he said he needed all hands on deck, so in the afternoon Alex finds himself on a field, helping to dig up potatoes.

Aaron is close to him, not close enough to talk, but they see each other, and when Alex waves, Aaron waves back. Aaron looks good, Alex admits to himself, he could still use some more weight, but his arms are becoming muscular, and Alex makes himself look away when Aaron bends down to pick up potatoes.

Theodosia is close to Aaron, and she continuously smiles at him, asks him to carry her bucket oncee she has filled it up with potatoes. Aaron nods and she hands it over, careful not to touch his skin, and Aaron smiles back at her in a way that makes Alex feel like he’s intruding on something.

After that, Alex focuses on his work, and while it’s physically demanding, it allows him to focus on his movements, on the strain in his back and the monotonous motion of bending down, picking up potatoes and putting them in the bucket he has, bringing that bucket up to the shed they had built for storing supplies, and repeating the whole thing. They have a different group that is going ahead with shovels, digging up the potatoes and removing the leaves of the plants so the rest only had to pick them up.

Alex feels like he has gone back to medieval times – or, at least, a couple hundred years – and it strikes him how strange that is, how quickly they got used to their new everyday lives.

During Dinner, he sits opposite to Aaron, who sits next to Theodosia. They don’t talk when Aaron joins, but Aaron seems happy enough, and Theodosia looks at Aaron in a way that makes Alex want to look away. He is acting ridiculous, and he knows it. He might have been the one to find Aaron, but he in no way has a right or a monopole on the man’s friendship and companionship.

Aaron is wearing a long-sleeved shirt, hiding the bandages around his arms, and Alex hopes the wounds didn’t get infected because of his work on the field. He also wonders what Theodosia would think if she had seen Aaron last night. Then he’s disgusted with himself for even thinking that.

After some time, little Laura comes running to them, and Alex’s smile is a little pained. They only have three children in the camp, and everyone was looking forward to a baby…but Theodosia sees his face, and the little girl is reaching out because she wants to be held, which Aaron, understandably, doesn’t immediately offer. So Theodosia lifts her into her lap and boops her nose, introduces her to Aaron.

“This is Aaron. He’s new here, he’s working with me on the field. Be a good girl and say hello.”

“Hello Aaron,” Laura says, before looking at Alex and waving at him. “Hello Alex.”

But Aaron is new and therefore more exciting, and she focuses on him.

“Mami said you live with Alex.”

“Yes, I do,” Aaron answers.

“Do you live with him like uncle Lafayette with uncle Hercules? Because that is okay too, mami says.”

Aaron chuckles a little, and Alex can’t help but note that it’s a beautiful sound.

“Your mama is right about that, sweetie. As long as you love someone, you can always live with them. But Alex and I are just friends.”

Aaron’s voice is soft while speaking with her, and Alex shouldn’t have expected anything, but he is at the same time happy Aaron sees him as a friend and wondering if he really does see him as a friend, or did he just say it to make it seem like he cared about Alex? Because he saved his life? He would never play that card, but given the level of trust Aaron seems to have, it would be in character for him to assume Alex thought he owed him something.

But Laura seems to accept that as well, and even though Alex watches her with wonder and can’t help but think what could have been, it fills him with awe when Aaron leans forward and boops her nose like Theodosia did, the first time Alex has ever seen him to willingly initiate contact, and it makes him feel warm all over.

He smiles at Aaron, and so do Theodosia and Laura, and Aaron smiles back bright enough for Alex to forget the bandages hidden beneath his sleeves.

It’s a good evening, and when he says good night to Aaron and blows out the last candle in their tiny room, he feels better than he has in months. Sleep comes easy, and he closes his eyes willingly.

When he wakes up, it’s to the sound of a body hitting the floor.

**Author's Note:**

> Mean, I know, but there will definitely be at least a second part, and if people are interested, maybe even a multi-chapter fic. Leave kudos and comments and let me know if you're interested :)


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